The temperatures are cooling and the leaves are turning brown, which for American sports fans means one thing - it's baseball post-season time. The best eight teams in the Major League have scrambled through to the play-offs having played 162 games in only six months. No rest for the wicked, the titanic clashes begin on Tuesday evening.

In recent years the October match-ups have been extremely troublesome to predict. The last two World Series have seen triumphs for wild card teams - the Florida Marlins last year and the Anaheim Angels in 2002 - giving substance to the theory that the sides in form going into the knockouts tend to do best.

The Angels are once again the team on the up in the American League. They emerged as the AL West winners after completing the overhaul of a seemingly impregnable deficit to the Oakland Athletics by beating their California rivals on Friday and Saturday night. With seven wins from their last ten, they even ascended to second seeds, thus escaping the fearsome New York Yankees and claiming home-field advantage in their match-up with the Boston Red Sox.

Yet it is the Red Sox who are the AL's wild card this year. The Red Sox actually have the second-best record in the league, but were unable to finish above their bitter betters from down the east coast, the Yankees. Boston haven't won the World Series since they allowed Babe Ruth to move to the Bronx in 1920, so desperate Red Sox fans have turned their attention to omens - most notably that one streak dating from that year has already been smashed with Ichiro breaking George Sisler's 84-year record number of hits in a regular season.

Red Sox fans would be better off looking to the field for hope, as the club has greatly improved the squad where it was weakest last year - namely in the bullpen and in their fielding. By bringing in the likes of Doug Mientkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera, the vast quantities of glaring errors has been cut drastically, while the acquisition of Keith Foulke (32 saves) as closer has proved fairly successful. With Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling leading the pitching rotation, and Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz in abundant home run mode, the Red Sox look well placed to overcome the Angels.

The likelihood is they will face the Yankees in a rematch of last year's fabulously tense Championship series. First, though, New York will need to bloody themselves to defeat the tiresome Minnesota Twins. The Twins have completed the AL Central Division three-peat for the first-time in their history, despite lacking a solitary gleaming star in their batting line-up. They achieve their remarkable success through those stoic values of team-work and commitment, with the helpful bonus of ace pitcher Johan Santana's 20 dominant wins.

The Yankees are the exact opposite, regardless of the best efforts of manager Joe Torre. Despite having the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Bernie Williams in their stellar line-up, New Yorkers know better than to proclaim themselves Major League champs prematurely. They haven't won a World Series since 2000, have torrid problems with their starting rotation, and the batters have been unable to gel in the way owner George Steinbrenner would have expected.

In the National League, meanwhile, the St Louis Cardinals have experienced a near flawless season. Any one of their powerful trio of Albert Puyols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds could have been MVP were it not for a certain Barry Bonds. They have amassed an immense 105 wins, and the expectant fans at Busch Stadium are certain this will be their year. Matt Morris and Woody Williams will lead the Cardinals' pitching, with an injury to Chris Carpenter the only concern for coach Tony La Russa.

In the first round they meet the Los Angeles Dodgers, who pipped the San Francisco Giants to the NL West title by rallying for seven runs in the ninth inning to defeat their fellow Californians on Saturday. The Dodgers suffered the loss of team leader Paul Lo Duca to the Marlins midway through the season, but have grouped together to make the playoffs for the first time since 1995. Unless Adrian Beltre fires though, it is hard to see them progressing.

The other NL encounter pits the Atlanta Braves, who were able to dawdle to victory in the NL East division, against the Houston Astros, who surged to the wild card on the very last day of the regular season. The Astros are the hottest team in baseball having won their last 18 games at home, and with 'The Rocket' Roger Clemens still firing those baseballs at the grand old age of 42, they will fancy their chances against the Braves, who have made a habit of blowing up in the playoffs - they have won only one World Series in the past 13 years despite winning their division every season.

So, deep breath, the Cardinals and the Red Sox is this writer's prediction for the World Series (with the Red Sox sneaking it), but it could just as easily be the Dodgers and the Twins. In October, I'm afraid you just can't tell.